Conditioning And Learning Lab Report

My predictions for the acceptance of the null hypothesis were very similar to the actual results with a few variations. My prediction of total arousal times for the first interval were the same however, on the second interval I had 60 total arousal times for the bats injected with the European P. destructans strand and the actual results had a total arousal of 80 bats injected with the European strand at interval

METHOD: In order to perform this experiment, the standby switch of the skinner box is switched to STBY (standby), in order to prevent the rat from starting the experiment before the experimenter. Then, the power switch is turned to the ON position, so the apparatus can be tested, and made sure it is functional. After, the Mode Switch is turned to Discrimination (DISC). Later, the Stimulus Intensity is set to 10. Next, the Response and Reinforcement counters are reseted to ZERO. Then, the room light is turned off, and the desk lamp is switched to the ON position. After, the rat is removed from the home cage, is gently placed inside the Operant Chamber, and the lid is safely secured. Later, the STBY switch is placed in the RUN position. For instance, during the experiment, the light will be on stimulus # 10, and the S⁺/Sˆ will be light off. Depressing

B.F Skinner was an American Psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber. The chamber he set up had rats in it and a lever, once the rats pulled the lever they were given a piece of food. After this happened the rate of bar pressing would increase dramatically and remain high until the rat was no longer hungry. He was a firm believer of the idea that human free will was actually an illusion and any human

8. Pavlov found that if he allowed his animals to rest for several hours following the extinction of a behavior, the conditioned response would spontaneously appear again upon re-presentation of the conditioned stimulus – although in a somewhat weaker form. This is called:

The experiment lasted 15 consecutive days. During the experiment, the rats were placed into 12 identical operative chambers which was used for all behavioral training and testing. Each chamber had an automatic retractable lever

PURPOSE: The purpose of the extinction experiment is to gradually decline the response rate with which rat number four presses the lever of the Operant Chamber. Extinction is the schedule of no reinforcement. It works by eliminating the reinforcers or dispensation of food when the rat presses the lever, and the rate of response of the animal declines. In addition, after several days, the rat was placed in the Operant Chamber again for a spontaneous recovery experiment. The purpose for the spontaneous recovery experiment consists of the increase in the rate of responding of the previously extinguished behavior (lever pressing for food). This happens because an animal responds more frequently at the begining of a new session than at the end of the old, although no reinforcement is given during the experiment.

Within the five-day adaptation phase, the mice were placed within a vented cage that contained necessities such as food, water, and a place to sleep. After five days, the mice were subjected to a three-day learned helplessness procedure. Some mice underwent additional testing. Each procedure was conducted in an isolated room that was near where their cages were

The equipment used to carry out this experiment was a computer based program located on the St. Francis Xavier University server. The program called “Sniffy- The Virtual Rat” generated the realistic responses of a rat. This program allowed experimenters to humanely learn about rats and their behaviours when placed in a Skinner box. This program simulated what a typical rat would do on a typical day in a Skinner box.

According to Gewirtz and Peláez-Nogueras (1992), “B. F. Skinner contributed a great deal to advancing an understanding of basic psychological processes and to the applications of science-based interventions to problems of individual and social importance.” He contributed to “human and nonhuman behavior, including human behavioral development, and to various segments of the life span, including human infancy” (p. 1411). One of Skinner's greatest scientific discoveries was “single reinforcement” which became sufficient for “operant conditioning, the role of extinction in the discovery of intermittent schedules, the development of the method of shaping by successive approximation, and Skinner's break with and rejection of stimulus-response

All rats received 8 sessions of conditioning, during which rats received: (A) Acquisition-stimuli training in which the delivery of a drop of sucrose-water was always present with the CS; (B) Extinction training in which the CS occurred without sucrose-water; or (C) Random-stimuli delivery training, in which the delivery of the CS and reward occur randomly in time. On the following day a non-reinforced test trial was performed with the CS

Evaluation and interpretation of the test results: 1- Calculating the cut-off: -In order to establish the cut-off, 0.15 extinction units were added to the measured extinction for the negative control (Cut-off = Extinction for the negative control + 0.15). 2- Test result: -Samples were considered positive if their extinction was more than 10 % above the calculated cut-off. Samples were considered equivocal and must be repeated if their extinction was within 10 % of the cut-off.

the “Skinner box”. He found that he was able to train rats to press a

He removed the pellets as a reinforced and found that the rats would eventually stop pressing the lever. He also decided to reward the rats intermittently. He found that irregularly rewarded behavior was the hardest to eradicate. He was then able to explain why we do dumb things even when we are not consistently rewarded. Skinner’s experiments were amazing and disturbing at the same time.

Skinner conducted a series of research experiments with rats and pigeons under controlled laboratory conditions using a specially designed cage. By doing so he sought to demonstrate that behaviour can be created and reinforced by external factors. The puzzle box he created for his experiments has become so widely used that it is now known as the “Skinner box”. Animals would be placed in a cage which had a bar lever mechanism used to dispense food; Skinner would measure the frequency of the bar pressing and introduce different variables into the experiments. This led to his discovery of 'partial reinforcement' and its correlation to the slower extinction of shaped behaviour. When food pellets would only be dispensed once in a while (as opposed to every pressing) Skinner noticed that it took longer for the learnt behaviour to become extinct. The powerful phenomenon of partial reinforcement can be noticed in gambling establishments; a player on a slot machine is more likely to keep up their behaviour of playing if the rewards are unpredictable and occasional. The player becomes more persistent in their gambling in the hope that the next coin will be the winner (Hunt, 1993).

Thereby, Skinner produced experiments whereby rats would navigate through mazes to achieve the goal of a box containing food. His interest was the behaviour of the rat, taking the right turn to achieve the desired result, food. To begin with the rats would take the wrong turn but with experience, they became more skilful. The rats learning behaviour was measured in two ways, firstly the length of time it took from start to end and secondly, the reduction in errors. This was a lengthy experiment which led Skinner to produce ‘the Skinner box’. Whereby, rats learnt to press a lever and pigeons learnt to peck a key in order to attain food, also known as behaviour shaping. This experiment lacks ecological validity as the animals are kept in a controlled environment which is dissimilar to their natural habitat. However, the results which were attained could not have been possible in natural circumstances. Skinner wanted to observe if behaviour could be learned through reaching a desired outcome such as positive reinforcement which needed to be